Archival Institute Service

Solving the Immigration Puzzle

The Number of People Escaping from Africa Alone is Eight Times the Population of Manhattan

For the next fifty to seventy years, superpowers like the US, European countries, Russia, and China will be flooded with migration movements from Africa larger than the Syrian Refugee Crisis. The number of migrants who are currently displaced would fill a city the size of Manhattan eight times. The aging infrastructure in the US and Europe is not fit to accept the population increase and the number of displaced migrants is continuing to grow. Many European countries and the US have already begun to take dramatic steps to close borders while simultaneously refocusing their foreign policies to take care of migrants overseas. However, most migrants actually prefer not to leave their homes, and want help to come to them. Urged by both security communities and elected officials, the migration crisis has produced funds for international development projects and reshaped global security policy in an effort to stabilize Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Aid programs and financing are also undergoing reforms needed to address the long established corruption within these programs to ensure that these communities get the help they desperately need.

By looking at these maps, one can see how consistent attacks over specific geographic areas with little to no resistance has enabled violent extremist networks to become entrenched to create global passage for illicit trades including trafficking in humans, narcotics, weapons, and other commodities exploiting both porous borders and illegal entry. One can also see why the global refugee crisis is predominantly composed of people from the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America escaping some of the world’s most dangerous places.

However, even if violent extremists and drug cartels were defeated today, there are other reasons causing mass migration. Unemployment, population growth, corruption, and the lack of basic amenities like food, water, and shelter. The search for education and medicine can also be drivers of migration especially in areas lacking development and not necessarily located in areas of criminal activity and violent conflict.

To complicate the matter further, many violent extremist run neighborhoods or criminal organizations offer better infrastructure to local communities than their own governments enabling the long term persistence and growth of these networks to skyrocket towards empire levels challenging the defenses of the US, Russia, China, and other advanced military strength and intel. With corruption also being a contributing factor in this phenomena and companies like Lockheed Martin being implicated in deals such as the Uranium One scandal, stabilizing efforts such as infrastructure development in the Middle East, Africa, and other places could provide new opportunities for less established companies and in a variety of industries including transportation, manufacturing, mining, and others the overall goal being to increase stability and economic growth internationally.

Africa's Arc of Instability Connects Global Trafficking Routes to Central America and the US, Europe, and the Middle East

Violent extremists have taken over key regions on the continent of Africa rich in resources, global trade routes, and populations ripe for recruiting. Through coordinated attacks, extremists have carved out an arc of instability that enables them to traffic humans, narcotics, arms, and other items such as counterfeit products between the Middle East and Latin America into the US and between the Middle East and Europe. This has contributed to other problems already in existence such as the lack of development, education, and employment opportunities, farmlands claimed by deserts, government and business corruption, and rising birth rates.

Many European countries have begun closing borders. The US has currently increased security forces to both the Middle East and Africa while also closing its borders to illegal immigrants in an effort to break up illegal trafficking. President Trump and congress have approved funds for building investments, but the scale of the problem will take cooperation from private and public sectors internationally.

Top 5 Reasons People Are Escaping:

Violent Extremism and Conflict

Population Growth

Lost Farm Lands, Food, and Water Resources

Unemployment

Corruption

With few and far between megacities in existence, migrants have begun to accumulate in slums with no economic opportunities, education, or healthcare. Even if Americans and Europeans were politically aligned in welcoming these migrants inside the US and Europe, the infrastructure in these countries including energy, water, transportation, healthcare, education, and employment cannot support the scale of the crisis. The international response has been to help these countries develop to stabilize the region and increase security to begin wearing down the threat of violent extremism.

What Could Help Migrants the Most is Providing them with Opportunities and Resources Closer to Home, and Helping Them From a Position of Strength by Developing Infrastructure Internationally.

How can help them when our own cities look like this? This is a Seattle Tent City.

The development of Africa has begun. Russia and China are expanding their spheres of influence with impressive speed. The US is following this trend. What is needed now are public private partnerships.

Developing Natural Resources and Infrastructure Internationally

Much of the African continent in the spheres of China and Russia. China has begun aggressively mining in exchange for the construction of roads while Russia has traded arms and nuclear technology for mining and energy rights. Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE have also pursued development projects, but some of these efforts have made the problems worse. The US has already begun extensive security operations in countries like Somalia against al Shabab. Congress has approved President Trump’s Build Act for Africa and approved $60 Billion in funding. Aid programs are in the process of being reformed to cut down on corruption and make financing more efficient. Still the magnitude of these problems will take international cooperation and private public sector collaboration.